Miami Prepares For WrestleMania & How City Won The Event

A new article is up courtesy of The Miami Herald that talks about the relationship between the city and WWE plus what had to be done to get WrestleMania 28 to take place there.

City officials promised WWE a $250,000 subsidy, along with other perks, and access to Miami-Dade county's three largest venues – Sun Life Stadium, the Miami Beach Convention Center and the American Airlines Arena.

Miami will do what the other cities that have hosted WrestleMania in the past by hanging WrestleMania banners from light posts along the highways and around 200 volunteers from the city will be recruited to help man the many WWE events during the week.

Said Mike Sophia, head of the Miami-Dade Sports Commission: "This event is as big as it gets. WrestleMania is up there in the league with Super Bowls and Final Fours. To be honest with you, when I got the [WrestleMania] bid book, I looked at it and I put it on the corner of my desk and I said, 'Nah, this isn’t us'" Sophia said. He then realized that WWE's WrestleMania "looks exactly like a Super Bowl. It's exactly something we could and should do. If you want to sit down and split hairs as to whether it strictly fits the definition of a sporting event, I’m not going to have a great argument."